Ptarmigan is no longer operating in Helsinki.

Ptarmigan existed as a project space in Vallila from 2009-2011 and a mobile curatorial/creative platfom until 2014. We no longer exist as an organised collective, but this website will continue to serve as an archive of the activities produced as Ptarmigan during these years.

Some of the people who were involved with Ptarmigan are now operating Temporary.

Senaste

European ghetto-installation will be constructed to Helsinki in September

Welcome to participate in the work-in-progress installation, workshops, discussions and a seminar

The City Ghettos of Today is a unique artistic initiative exploring the concept of ‘ghetto’ in 7 European cities. The activities of the project will take place in Helsinki between 8.9. and 20.9. These include a transforming installation that will form its contents in multidisciplinary workshops collaboratively with an international team of artists and local participants, a seminar that presents the cases of the project in the different cities, a series of workshops and public interview-discussions and two public performances related to the collectively built installation.

At the heart of the project lies a desire to construct together meaningful experiences and new ways of understanding the concept of ghettos in different European cities. Do spatial, invisible or abstract walls separate groups of people from other groups? Why, when and how this happens in the different cities?

The installation consists of different sized tubes that transform into containers for sounds and voices, video screens or corridors for actors. The collective building process of the installation is combined with dialogical meetings with representatives of different communities in each city. Instead of being an independent and finalized work of art, the installation is a travelling tool for exploring the theme during the collective period of creation. In Helsinki the approach on the ghetto-concept concentrates on limits that make it difficult to share different types of knowledge. With whom can individuals from varied backgrounds share their knowledge, visions and practices and what kind of communities does this process form?

The programme of interviews was planned together with Sivuvalo project´s multilingual writers residing in Finland and other partners of the project.

In Helsinki the installation will be built to Cultural Centre Stoa 9.9.-19.9. in workshops open for participants from Helsinki. A seminar presenting the project cases of Warsaw, Bologna, Paris and other cities will take place at Lavaklubi of the National Theatre 16.9. at 2-6 pm. A performance related to the installation will take place at Stoa 17.9. at 6 pm and at Shopping Centre Forum 19.9. at 5 pm. A final installation that compiles the materials from the project´s seven cities will be constructed in Warsaw in january 2015.

The Helsinki-based members of the artist team are Alejandro Olarte, electroacoustic musician and composer-educator-researcher from Colombia, Marek Pluciennik, video artist from Poland, Walter Fondo, actor and association activist from Cameroon, and Eveliina Heinonen, drama educator born in Finland and Roxana Crisólogo, a poet born in Peru. The artistic director of the international project is Pietro Floridia, a theatre director and multidisciplinary artist from Bologna. In September, a team of artists coming from the project´s different cities will guide the building process of the installation Helsinki together with the local team.

Ptarmigan Tallinn's current artist in residence, Camilla Graff Junior, will perform My Mom is a Wolf, My Dad... at XL Art Space on Tuesday, 26 November at 18:00. The performance is free and lasts about 80 minutes.

‘Kontaining13: Traces’ was a one week takeover of a shipping container turned art container in the centre of Helsinki. The programme was coordinated by Ptarmigan directors (Amal Laala, James Andean, Marek Pluciennik and Sari T.M. Kivinen) in collaboration with Outi Korhonen (regional artist on cultural diversity of the Arts Promotion Centre Finland).

This was the second time we were invited to present a programme for the art container. In 2012 we focused on presenting the work of selected artists who responded to an open-call in a programme simply called Kontaining. This year we decided to shift the focus and to develop the programme more in accord to our collective and individual artistic interests. Subsequently each director oversaw one day of the programme, during which we developed both solo and collaborative work. We also included a day of improvised collaboration at the conclusion of the week, in which all of us bought in aspects explored in the previous days.

The red string that ran through the entire programme was that we all explored various ways to engage our activities with the site of a busy urban space and the random people walking past. For example Marek invited people to look inside the container through a peep-hole in which they could see themselves looking into the container via a live video feed; Amal collaborated with Karim Galenius to present an open workshop and discussion about the role of protest in society; Sari worked with artist Hannah Harkes to develop a collective narrative (drawn and written) about the container, the people passing by were drawn and written into their narrative in real-time; and James explored the site with the Tuesday group – a group who normally explores improvisation together on Tuesdays (this time on a Saturday).

In addition Alejandro Olarte presented a sonic workshop, Rank Ensemble presented live improvised sound evening, Catalysti spent a day promoting their activities as a new association supporting transcultural artists in Finland, and Rebecca Clamp performed a dynamic concert as the final event of the week.

From 17th-20th October 2013 Ptarmigan will collaborate with French based organisation Dimanche Rouge to realise part of the tri-national experimental performance festival Dimanche Rouge Estonia-Finland-France (DR.EFF for short).

Dimanche Rouge Estonia-Finland-France will bring together a host of prominent art institutions, alternative un-institutions and artist-run spaces, with over 100 of the most exciting performance artists coming from some 30 countries.

The aim of the festival is to present a diverse international platform to create exchange, dialogue and debate around the thriving experimental performance scene. In addition to the performances, the festival will also offer roundtable discussions, workshops and talks for artists and the general public.

Programs will be video streamed live and publicly screened at several locations worldwide.

Partially supported by the City of Helsinki Cultural Office. Support for artists by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Korean Arts Council. Additional support for some artists by the British Council, the Austrian, Hungarian, and Polish embassies in Tallinn, and Le Generateur/Frasq. Other support is pending.